The 1972 United States presidential election was the 47th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday,November 7,1972. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon handily defeated Democratic Senator George McGovern of South Dakota,receiving 520 of 538 electoral votes. Until the 1984 election,this was the largest margin of victory in the Electoral College for a Republican in a U.S. presidential election,and as of 2023 it remains the last time a presidential candidate captured more than 60% of the popular vote. This was also the most recent election in which the entire Midwest was won by a single candidate,particularly because Minnesota has not voted for a Republican for president since. Despite the seismic scope of President Nixon’s victory,heavy ticket-splitting prevented Republicans from making substantial inroads in the parallel Congressional races.
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's persistent attempts to cover up its involvement in the June 17,1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington,D.C.,Watergate Office Building.
The Saturday Night Massacre was a series of events that took place in the United States on the evening of Saturday,October 20,1973,during the Watergate scandal. U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox;Richardson refused and resigned effective immediately. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox;Ruckelshaus refused,and also resigned. Nixon then ordered the third-most-senior official at the Justice Department,Solicitor General Robert Bork,to fire Cox. Bork carried out the dismissal as Nixon asked. Bork stated that he intended to resign afterward,but was persuaded by Richardson and Ruckelshaus to stay on for the good of the Justice Department.
Raymond H. LaHood is an American politician who served as the 16th United States Secretary of Transportation from 2009 to 2013 under President Barack Obama. A member of the Republican Party,he previously served in the Illinois House of Representatives (1982–1983) and United States House of Representatives (1995–2009).
Peter Wallace Rodino Jr. was an American Democratic politician. He represented parts of Newark,New Jersey and surrounding Essex and Hudson counties for twenty terms from 1949 to 1989. He was the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives from New Jersey until passed by Chris Smith in 2021.
Leslie Cornelius Arends was a Republican politician from Illinois who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1935 until 1974.
Dan Heflin Kuykendall was an American politician and businessman who served as a United States Representative from Tennessee's 8th and 9th congressional districts from 1967 until 1975. A member of the Republican Party,Kuykendall was the first Republican to be elected in the 8th district since 1920 and was the first to be elected in the 9th district since 1872.
John Jacob Rhodes Jr. was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Republican Party,Rhodes was elected as a U.S. Representative from Arizona. He was the minority leader in the House of Representatives from 1973 to 1981 and pressed a conservative agenda.
Lawrence Joseph Hogan Sr. was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Congressman,representing the 5th congressional district of Maryland from January 3,1969,to January 3,1975. In 1974,he was the only Republican Representative to vote to recommend all three House articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon. He was the father of the 62nd Governor of Maryland,Larry Hogan.
Hamilton Fish IV or Hamilton Fish Jr. was an American Republican politician who represented parts of New York's Hudson Valley region in the United States House of Representatives for thirteen terms from 1969 to 1995. Fish was a member of the prominent Fish political family;his grandfather and father,both also named Hamilton,represented the region from 1909 to 1911 and 1920 to 1945,respectively.
Delbert Leroy Latta was an American lawyer and politician who served 15 terms as a United States Representative from Ohio's 5th district from 1959 to 1989. A Republican,he is one of the state's longest-serving politicians as well as the father of Bob Latta,who has held his father's congressional seat since 2007.
William Donlon Edwards was an American politician of the Democratic Party and a member of the United States House of Representatives from California for 32 years in the late 20th century.
Philip Gary Hare is an American politician who was U.S. Representative for Illinois's 17th congressional district,serving from 2007 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district was based in Illinois's share of the Quad Cities area and included Rock Island,Moline,Quincy,Decatur,Galesburg and part of Springfield.
Darwin Gale Schisler was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois's 19th congressional district and a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from the 46th district and later the 48th district.
Walter Winkler Flowers,Jr. was an American Democratic politician who represented Alabama's 5th congressional district and Alabama's 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from January 1969 to January 1979.
Wiley Mayne was a four-term Republican United States Congressman from Iowa's 6th congressional district. He was one of several Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee who were defeated in the fall of 1974 after he voted against resolutions to impeach President Richard M. Nixon in the summer of 1974.
Stanley Lloyd Greigg was an American politician who served one term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from northwestern Iowa. A Democrat,he was elected to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of longtime Republican representative Charles B. Hoeven in 1964,but lost to Republican Wiley Mayne two years later in 1966. Greigg was later one of the victims of the Watergate break-in in 1972.
Floyd James Fithian was an American educator and politician who served as a United States Representative from Indiana as a Democrat. He was one of the forty nine Watergate Babies who won election to the House of Representatives in the wake of the Watergate scandal during the 1974 House elections with Fithian himself defeating Earl Landgrebe,who became infamous for his stalwart defense of President Richard Nixon. He was one of the fourteen members of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) and believed that the Kennedy assassination in 1963 was orchestrated by members of organized crime.
Manley Caldwell Butler was an American lawyer and politician widely admired for his integrity,bipartisanship and courage. A native of Roanoke,Butler served his hometown and wider community first as a member of the Republican Party in the Virginia General Assembly (1962–1972) and later the United States House of Representatives (1972–1983).
The impeachment process against Richard Nixon began in the United States House of Representatives on October 30,1973,following the series of high-level resignations and firings widely called the "Saturday Night Massacre" during the course of the Watergate scandal. The House Committee on the Judiciary set up an impeachment inquiry staff and began investigations into possible impeachable offenses by Richard Nixon,the 37th president of the United States. The process was formally initiated on February 6,1974,when the House granted the Judiciary Committee authority to investigate whether sufficient grounds existed to impeach Nixon of high crimes and misdemeanors under Article II,Section 4,of the United States Constitution. This investigation was undertaken one year after the United States Senate established the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities to investigate the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex during the 1972 presidential election,and the Republican Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement;during those hearings the scope of the scandal became apparent and the existence of the Nixon White House tapes was revealed.
